What's In a Name? Everything!

Since Sydney is at my mom's house "helping" her in her flower garden, I thought I would take advantage of this blessed silence and share with you one of the ways that God confirmed our adoption of Abbey.

We began this journey to Abbey/YeHong on March 18th, 2008.  It was the second day we had Sydney and we were back at the Civil Affairs office for our interview.  The hot and stuffy room was full of other new families.  I noticed Wayne watching the other families closely.  This was not odd because he loves just setting and watching people.  I don't get it, but he does.  Anyway, I noticed him watching a certain family. The parents were probably in their late 40's or early 50's and they had a new daughter of about 10 years old.  They had obviously just gotten her, because they were waiting to be interviewed as well.  They had given this sweet girl a simple digital camera.  She was taking pictures of everything in sight including herself and her new parents.  Then she would show the pictures to them and just smile the biggest and sweetest smile imaginable.  Wayne leaned over to me and said, "Look over there.  One of these days, we are gonna come back and adopt one of the older children like that."  He said it so matter of factly that I remember getting chills.  And I lovingly looked him straight in the eye and said, "Absolutely not!" 

Oh can you just hear God giggle......

Fast forward to summer of 09.  We definately had the adoption bug again.  I could not stop looking at photo listings and just yearning to bring another child home.  However I was not looking at the older children.  I was just too afraid, for whatever reason, to think about adopting an older child.  But as time moved on and God worked, I kept meeting these incredible families that adopted 13 year olds.  I just loved thier stories and how I could just see God all over them.  It wasn't long until we were matched with a beautiful 13 year old girl from Luoyang named YeHong.  When we saw her video, my heart just melted.  It is very difficult to explain, but she was just mine. 

We begin the paperwork, and about two months into it, I begin to get very afraid.  I began to question everything we were doing.  I was afraid it would be too hard.  We had told several people, and the reactions were not all that possitive.  You know the look, raised eyebrows, high pitched voices saying "Oh really.  That's nice."  I was doing a bit of a downward spiral and feeling like I had jumped in way over my head. 

At the same time, we were also struggling to come up with a name.  It is very diffucult to name a 13 year old.  Alot of names seemed too baby-ish.  Some of the other Luoyang families had gotten an English name in thier referral file.  But Yehong's file did not have an English name in it anywhere.  So we began tossing around names for her.  We have a Sarah and Sydney and so we thought another "A" name to go with Ashlyn would be cute.   We thought of Alex, which the whole family pretty much liked. I liked the name, but for some reason, it just did not settle well with me.  I brought up Abbey.  But everyone was pretty set on Alex.  We considered Allie for awhile.  Then back to Alex.  All the while I just kept saying, "I just think she should be Abbey.  I don't know why, it just seems right."  

In the mean time, I email Michael.  He is a man who served in Louyang orphanage for a long time and he had posted some pics of YeHong on his web page.  I just wanted to thank him for that and for loving the LouYang kids like he did.  As a final thought, at the end of the email I asked him if he knew whether or not Yehong Had an English name.  When he emailed me back, of course, the first thing he told me was, "Yes, she had an Englesh name, it is Abbey."  Let me tell you, the Holy Spirit rained on me at that moment and just confirmed from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet that this was my daughter.  I ran to Wayne jumping up and down and yelling "Her name is Abbey!  Her name is Abbey!"   We were just in awe.

You see, when God calls you to do something, it is personal.  He will give you what you need, when you need it.  It may not be on your time table.  He may not give you the 10 step plan, outlined and numbered.  But he will give you what you need, when you need it, and in a way that is personal to you.

That's who he is.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 

The Lord will guide you always:  he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen you frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11